Managers have been sorely challenged in 2009 and this year to keep optimistic and not succumb to the ongoing, sometimes mind-numbing stress of work and, at best, tenuous job security. They are called to do this not only for themselves but also for their people. One place employees look for assurance that things will be OK is their immediate boss. If she is sounding scared or negative, staff will pick it up too.

But lingering somewhere in the back of our minds is the idea that when this is all over and we all have jobs back again, things will return to how it was before derivative financing and house prices tanked.

Well, it looks more and more like things won’t!

This week Newsweek Magazine featured an excerpt from Author Greg Easterbrook’s latest book, Sonic Boom. In it he talks about the frenetic pace of change due to globalization and how, once we come out of the recession, this will sweep us all back into its vortex, resulting in both benefit and pain. Let me quote him on the bad news part of our future:

…just as favorable economic and social trends are likely to resume, many problems that have characterized recent decades are likely to get worse, too.

Job instability, economic insecurity, a sense of turmoil, the fear that when things seem good a hammer is about to fall–these are also part of the larger trend.  As world economies become ever more linked by computers, job stress will become a 24/7 affair. Frequent shakeups in industries will cause increasing uncertainty.

I think this means managers must consciously shift the context of the conversations they have with their employees. We need to create a new consciousness about how…

1. We really mean it this time–there really won’t be that elusive thing we call security as we go forward in the decade.
2. This means that each one of us, manager and employee alike, needs to start seeing ourselves as what William Bridges calls “You & Company.” We have take personal responsibility for our job performance record, our skill and educational development, and our ability to stay marketable in the crazy economy coming at us.

We have to get it ourselves! And we owe it to our employees to drive the message home to them as well.